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by vsnf 876 days ago
> Steam Punk

Cyber Punk?

1 comments

Probably a typo, but Gibson also co-authored The Difference Engine, which is as Steam Punk as it gets :)

(and according to Wikipedia "...is widely regarded as a book that helped establish the genre conventions of steampunk.")

... Well, I think many of the genre conventions were established enough that there was even one tabletop Steam Punk RPG that predated the publication of "The Difference Engine" (1990):

Space 1889 - (first published in 1988/89)

However - I think it was essentially just a convergence of cultural zeitgeist within about an 8-year period.

(Myself, I preferred "Castle Falkenstein" (1994) - but that was because I liked just about anything Mike Pondsmith/Talsorian released)

Im going to have to read that now. Loved Neuromancer, and Steam Punk is one of my favorite genres
Another one of today's lucky 10000.

It's a hard piece but overall I enjoyed reading it.

Difference Engine starts great but then towards the end kind of fizzles out (IIRC, maybe I should read it again).
It was a Gibson-Sterling joint but you almost have to wonder if Stephenson ghostwrote the last bit.